REUTERS - Beijing on Tuesday said it would tax U.S. products worth $60 billion effective Sept. 24 in retaliation for tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in an escalating trade war.

PLATTS - "A tremendous amount of LNG will be exported to Poland," Trump said during a joint news conference with Duda. "We're giving them a pretty good price. They're buying a lot of it. That's gonna be great."

PLATTS - Speaking on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Barcelona, Mikhelson said Novatek could review its strategy to reach 57 million mt/year of LNG production by 2030 in the coming years as it continues to expand its already huge gas resource base in northern Russia.

REUTERS - Saudi Arabia, the United States and Russia can between them raise global output in the next 18 months to compensate for falling oil supplies from Iran and elsewhere, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on a visit to Moscow on Friday.

PLATTS - South Korea's crude oil imports from Iran plunged 86.5% in August from a year earlier due to pending re-imposition of US sanctions on Tehran, according to preliminary data released by the Korea Customs Service Monday.

PLATTS - Moscow also hopes to have its 55 Bcm/year Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its 31.5 Bcm/year TurkStream link ready to flow gas to Europe by the end of 2019, leaving only limited volumes for transit via Ukraine.

PLATTS - In a meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry reiterated US opposition to the expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia, claiming it would hurt European allies and distort energy markets.

PLATTS - Putin said the LNG sector in particular was a key focus area for future cooperation, noting that Japanese companies may take part in the planned expansion of Sakhalin 2, Arctic LNG 2 and Baltic LNG projects as well as an LNG transshipment facility in Kamchatka.

REUTERS - China’s demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to grow by 20 percent to 25 percent in 2018 despite heightened trade tensions with the United States, Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed al-Sada said.

REUTERS - Qatargas said on Monday it had agreed on a 22-year deal with PetroChina International Co, a unit of PetroChina Co, to supply China with around 3.4 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually, as the nation stepped up efforts to combat air pollution.

PLATTS - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is significant potential for energy cooperation with Qatar, after the Middle Eastern LNG giant's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani announced plans to invest Eur10 billion ($11.5 billion) in the German economy over the next five years.

U.S. EIA - The United States exported 7.3 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil and petroleum products in the first half of 2018, when exports of crude oil and hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL) set record monthly highs. Crude oil surpassed HGLs to become the largest U.S. petroleum export, with 1.8 million b/d of exports in the first half of 2018. U.S. exports of crude oil, HGLs, and motor gasoline grew in the first half of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017, while distillate exports decreased 84,000 b/d

BLOOMBERG - Saudi Arabia has markedly increased oil exports to America, a sign OPEC’s leading producer is responding to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to cool down the energy market.

GAZPROM - The offshore pipelay vessel Solitaire started the pipelay for the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.

GAZPROM - the TURKSTREAM project was going according to schedule. Specifically, the deep-water pipelaying for the offshore part of the gas pipeline’s first string had been completed in the Black Sea along with the construction of the second string in Russia’s exclusive economic zone.